Throwback Thursday: Ronnel Villas Mr. Villas was our very young instructor in World History back in 4th year high. He made us work on agit-prop materials for the campaign against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. I remember sprucing up my poster with glitters before posting it on our alma maters West Drive wall. Our quarterly recitations were big days for eye contact and be the focus of his attention for a few minutes. Mr. Villas was compellingly hot and good looking. There were even days when I had suspected he was part of the first few batches that graced Kuya Germs Thats Entertainment! In our very first recitation day, I had to explain why the first civilizations were built around bodies of water.The answer to that question was part of his introduction to Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc, something I had legibly noted down. So I had to tell him that people build their lives, their culture, their economy, and pretty much everything that makes up civilization around labor. Those bodies of water contained as much as it enabled all their labors. He looked very pleased with my answer and gave me the kind of affirmation I needed for being an excellent note-taker. When I got a little bit older, I realized that Mr. Villas taught me my very first lesson on historical materialism. Once he told us how his elder brother labeled him communist. His retort: Kuya, why do you make it sound like its such a bad thing? There is nothing wrong with being communist. That was how he introduced his lesson on world economic systems. He also made us watch Orapronobis in our favorite spot, the school AVR! He said we must see it because it was banned by the Cory-led government. He was our bus chaperone on the field trip that took us to a shoe factory in Antipolo and San Miguel Corporation in Ortigas. I never realized the significance of the contrast between those two sites until many years later. One day, we were pulled out of our classes to attend a forum for all senior students whose world history classes he was handling. Again, it was held in our fave spot, the school AVR. It was jam-packed and I had to sit on the floor to get a proper view of the forum moderator, Mr. Villas, and our guests, Satur Ocampo and Nat Santiago while they talked about how the filipino people just kicked out the U.S. military bases. My 16- year old self couldnt stop staring at them, I was thinking, ganyan ba talaga sila, ang popogi naman.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:48:19 +0000
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